


Nibelheim Burns

by Iju



Category: FF7, FFVII, Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy 7
Genre: Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 11:13:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15884904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iju/pseuds/Iju
Summary: One of the many FF stories I wrote when I was a teen.





	1. Chapter 1

 

Okay so here’s a collection of probably a dozen or so stories I wrote when I was 15/16. I was thinking about them more and more nowadays as I was getting back into not 7, but FF in general. So I dug around for my old notebooks I saved and found that I had a lot of stories but pages are missing from some as well, so I’ll have to add everything up to then. But that doesn’t need to be going into much now.

These stories are almost completely unedited except for some typos or small things like that I will adjust. That means I will basically scan whatever letters are written on the pages and place them here. To be honest, now that I read through a couple of them, I wish I could burn them. I remember my teenage self being so proud of the stories but reading through them now at 21 they are complete garbage, even for a child for that age. However, I’m simply sharing them because, long story short, I need to get rid of the notebooks and, bad or good, they _are_ stories I wrote. So I want to save them permanently before I lose them completely.

99% of them are Cloti, I was absolutely obsessed with the LTD as well as them and Zerith. I still love me some Zerith and Cloti but I was insane for them when I was young. I obsessed over Cloti so much I even made my older/oldest one, as well as a Zerith fan. Even now we joke about the shock the Cleriths will get in the remake.

But more than the Cloti couple itself, I absolutely adored how much Cloud had worshipped Tifa from afar and dedicated his life for her, even before the promise and even moreso afterwards. I love that about Cloti even now, but I do love Tifa as well.

P.S. The “intros” you see in the beginning of almost every story is just me copying what I read before reading stories on FF.net, you know the users talking/interacting with their fans/followers/ I had always assumed I would upload them online eventually whether to one or more followers but never got around to it until now. If someone told my 15/16yr old self these stories would never see the light of the internet until more than 5yrs later she definitely wouldn’t believe it. All that wasted time, ugh. Let this be a big lesson to you on why procrastination is stupid, lazy, senseless but also potentially dangerous.

P.P.S. Since I am nothing short of ashamed of what terrible stories I wrote, I have already thought of scrapping them entirely and rewriting them. Not all, but a few, definitely. Also, I am putting the date of what I wrote at the end of the stories, so you may see some dates out of order. That’s because I don’t really know where to start on the chronological order of each story I did. I don’t believe they will matter much, though.

P.P.P.S. The bold “intro”are my own words, by present me. Unbolded intros are all my words as a teen.

So, that’s it. Moving on.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**This is the story I was thinking of the most, so it’s only fair I type this one up first. Rereading it now it’s absolutely nothing like I thought it would be lmao. I guess the stories would have been better written if I went over them again, since literally all my stories are first drafts; as any mediocre writer knows, never, ever publish first drafts. Silly teen me, what was I thinking? I knew the first draft rule yet I applied it to every piece of writing I did except these.**

**BTW, this is one of the stories I plan on rewriting, not as a first draft this time.**

Neibleheim Burns

_HA! I don’t think this title is too bad, although I’m sure there are much better titles. Wow! This is like *counts* my 8 th or 9th story straight! Ideas just keep rolling in, thanks to the game alone and the compilation! Thanks Square *soft kisses* I wonder how they came up with such a name as Neibleheim. …It’s such an interesting name._

\---

“Cloud…!....Cloud!”  
“CLOUD!”  
He stirred and opened his eyes to see a pair of deep blue eyes looking back in terror. He coughed, but it didn’t help at all; his throat was inflamed and filled with smoke. “Seph…iroth…” He gasped, and coughed again.   
He felt a pair of firm hands on his shoulders. “Hold on Buddy, just hold on!” A voice said, and the hands gave him a strong squeeze and footfalls quickly faded from his earshot.  
His head was getting heavy and his eyesight blurry…His throat contracting and aching of terrible pain…  
“Mrh….mmmfr….un….”  
He turned his head to the right and saw the body of his mother right on her face.  
His eyes widened and he crawled over to her, gritting his teeth against the pain , and pulled her over on his lap.  
She gurgled up blood, and Cloud put his hand over the gaping wound on her right breast to stop the blood. “Mom,” He croaked.   
She moaned something and he held her closer to him, eyes welling up.  
“C-Clo-“ She let a last breath out ,and fell limp.  
“Mom!” _Oh no… please….this can’t be real…_ “Mom! Mom!”  
He stood and pulled her by her shoulders as much as he could into a corner by the edge of a nearby house. He had touched her wound when he heard a crackling sound and looked above him just in time to see a huge plank of fiery wood fall down right towards him and his mother. In a desperate attempt he reached his hands up to stop it from falling on them both, and instantly pain wrapped its hellish arms around his limbs. He yelled but kept his ground; he would not let this wood hit his mom.  
It was getting heavier and heavier, and he denied that it was on fire as his hands heated up. Sweating and swearing to himself, he stood tall and lifted the board to toss it over, but it dropped in his grasp and fell onto his mom, setting her clothes on fire.  
He screamed and tried in vain, fruitless efforts to topple the hundred pounded slab from her, sobbing for her to wake up and run, run from this horror, this nightmare come true, this Hell, before it got to her.  
_Sephiroth…_  
He engulfed himself in the anger and confusion at the 1 st class SOLDIER, the universal hero, and grasped the plank once more and wrenched it off. Niebleheim clothes were surprisingly thick, so the fire didn’t get through to her yet.  
“Mom…Mom!” He took her face in his hands and shook it around.   
Then, a high pitched screaming sound sounded before a burst of glass sprayed everywhere.   
Cloud dived to protect his mother and cringed as the glass showered his body that came from the house to the right of him.

The _right_ of him.

Oh God.  
_Tifa...!_

Setting his mom down, he scrambled over to the Lockhart home. Grasping the doorknob, he jerked back; the heat had already reached it. He tried pounded the door with his burned fists, kicking it, pushing against it, but the door stood firm; it must have been the pressure from the heat.  
Suddenly, Cloud saw an image of Tifa’s body burning into ashes, which immediately stopped his heart.  
As if possessed by madness, he grabbed the knob, the heat licking his hands, and banged against the door with full force.  
The door gave in, and he was greeted with billows of smoke. He dived down but it barely helped, he could still hardly breathe from before and he couldn’t see much. Even so, he didn’t need to see where he was going; he’d know where her room was with or without any light.  
He flew up the stairs in a few swift movements and crashed into her room. What if she was caught in the bed? He yanked the covers, but she wasn’t there. Taking a shortcut by jumping off the top of the stairs, he whirled around the house, barging through all the rooms.   
Where was she?!?  
He was about to yell the name of the girl he knew most out of all the villagers, the name that went with a beautiful face, the name belonging to the person he was dreading to know was dead, the name of whom he was dearly, passionately, hopelessly in love with, when he spied the back door of the kitchen eerily opened just a bit. He slammed through it and bolted outside.

xxxx

To see his face look up at her in a strain to smile meant revenge. But to see his last breath and his eyes roll up into his head forever pushed any other kind of revenge off the list.  
The one would have to be fatal.  
She slowly took the sword out of her father’s body, the blood sliding against it making a sickening, slick sound that torched her ears and sank down to stab her heart.  
Taking slow strides that turned into hurried ones, than a full-fledged charge, a shriek of mourn and bloodlust left her throat as she raised the sword in blinded fury.  
Before she could attack within an inch of harm, she was lifted into the air by her throat in a simple half-blink of an instant, and was face to face with green almond slitted eyes that held contempt, revulsion, insanity, and the tiniest hint of an amused, curious smile. As if, _how could she possibly even think to come against **him**?_

Before Tifa could even comprehend the emotion behind the eyes, the sword was wrenched out of her hand and slice the middle of her body in two quick movements. Tifa screamed, but was cut short by colliding onto the stairs headfirst and slid onto the cold floor beneath them.

It hurt to even breathe. The gasps she took it would only bring fresh blood onto the floor, which lead her to gasp in pain and it would start all over again.  
She gritted her teeth and used the balls of her hands to turn on her back. That alone made her head spin and she screamed. Tears of pain and fury wetted her face as she looked up the stairs to look for Sephiroth, but he was gone, and all she could hear was inhumanly soft, soothing voice in the upper room murmuring something. Even for the unbearable pain she was in, it was enough to give her a chill in her spine.

Her wound worsened and a headache that would faint a man beat persistently in her skull, but it still didn’t stop images of Cloud flooding her mind.   
_Cloud…now would be a good time for you to keep the promise…_ She snorted lightly but even that made her cough up blood.  
More tears spilled down her cheeks, but she wasn’t sure of it was from the pain of the wound or the pain of realizing she would never see him again.  
As if in que, rapid footfalls entered the room. Her heart leapt. Cloud…Is it…?!?  
“Tifa?!? What the _hell_?!?”

She recognized that voice and a pair of blue eyes met hers. Spikey hair appeared, the face belonging to that hair was surely attractive, and the body did wear clothes that symbolized the male belonged with Shinra, but he wasn’t Cloud.  
“Oh God no!” Zack looked at her wound and held out his hands to reach the injury, but retracted them at a second thought. “How could Sephiroth _do_ this?!?” His face was a mixture of confusion and rage. “ _How?!?_ I don’t understand!”  
_You should be the one to talk._ Tifa gained up a shaky, agonizing breath and hissed, _“Leave me alone…!”  
_ Zack looked back at her as if she slapped and spat on him. “…Wh..What?” He said in a low voice.  
“SOLDIER…Shinra…All of it…” Her infuriation rose and she wheezed out, “I hate it all! And I hate _you!_ ”  
He stared back, blankly. He looked down on the floor and stood up, then went up the stairs. “I won’t ask you to forgive me,” He said quietly as he trudged slowly up the stairs. He said it with such softness and meaning that she had second thoughts on what she said, but she meant it; she would have no heart after any of this.  
If she even survived this at all.  
“Just… _Please_ …” He turned his face to hers. “Let me prove I’m different.”  
His face looked so hurt, twisted with so much sorrow and understanding that Tifa looked the other way. He shouldn’t try to change her feelings, he had no right. And she wouldn’t let him get that chance.  
She heard him unsheathe his sword and his footfalls quicken up the stairs. A crash followed.   
Just that little lashing out at Zack had tired her, and she felt her life leaving her. Her hearing was fading…  
_“Why did you kill the townspeople....Why did you hurt Tifa?!?”_  
The voice got quieter and softer…  
_“Answer me…Sephiroth!”_  
A crazed laugh as a reply filled the reactor room.  
And that was all she knew.

 

xxxx

Tifa…Tifa where are you?!?  
The boy had searched the scorching village twice and hadn’t seen anything that would have helped him. His mind started conjuring up images once more and he began to tremble, but he couldn’t let that best him. He shook his head violently. _No_. Sephiroth had _not_ gotten to her. She escaped from his murderous clutches and is now hiding somewhere.   
The fire was building, eating shrubs, houses and the oxygen itself. It was only a matter of small, rapid minutes before the village was completely unrecognizable.  
Running around, Cloud tripped over yet another burning plank, and as he stumbled over the wood he happened to look up and saw an opening that lead uphill.  
Uphill to the mako reactor.  
He took a chance and scrambled upwards, leaving the fire ridden village in its terror while he faced his own.

xxxx

His heart jumped when he saw the Behemoth. He swallowed and pushed Tifa’s crumbled body elsewhere around the mountain out of his head.   
At least, he tried to.  
Making a quick search in the general area of the Mount Nibel, he rubbed his hands together nervously. Did he look around entirely? Something in his heart told him no, Sephiroth didn’t throw her off to her death. He needed to get to the top. Fast.  
Leaping, scrambling, sweating his way up, his mind span out of control.  A deluge of images of Tifa dead in a million different ways flew by, and his efforts to stop them only made them come back even stronger, and twice more horrifying.   
_pleasedon’tletmebetoolate pleasedon’tletmebetoolate pleasedon’tletmebetoolate-  
_ He zipped up the reactor’s stairs. Still no Tifa.  
_pleasedon’tletme-_  
He banged through the first door.  
_pleasedon’tletme-_  
He tore around a corner.  
_Don’t-_  
He saw a bloody trail and followed it.  
****_pleasedon’tletme-  
_ His mouth fell open, his mind trying to decide what to do.  
There, on the cold floor of the mako reactor room, in a lake of blood, was the unmistakable body of Tifa.. He wasn’t sure whether he could cry, scream, run or bite himself.  
Just a few feet away was his best friend Zack, his body as silent and unmoving as Tifa’s.  
Mechanically, he picked up Zack’s sword, the feelings still struggling to adjust themselves. When he went into the Jenova room, the shock melted from him like sugar in boiling water when he saw the still figure of Sephiroth. Going up the pipe he was standing on, confused and angering thoughts whirled around in Cloud’s mind.  
_I looked up to you….Why did you do this? You killed everyone…Mom…Zack…Tifa…!!!_ In a rage her slashed the side of the SOLDIER hero, who let out a soft grunt of surprise more than pain.  
“Mom…My hometown….Tifa. GIVE THEM BACK!” The small boy cried out in heartache and confusion. He ripped the sword out of Sephiroth’s body, hoping to everything that it hurt, and nearly grinned when the silver haired man slid town the tank that held that horrific looking thing.  
_Tifa!_  
He ran back to the entrance of the room and jumped down the stairs. He took her body that was frighteningly light for her loss of blood and cradled her on his lap, her body even more lifeless than it was when she fell from Mount Nieble. It froze his heart how he would move a part of her body by the smallest budge and it complied.   
Too late.  
_I’m too late…._  
“Tifa…” He reached out and stroked her cold cheek, keeping his gaze on her. That beautiful face would do nothing more. It was too much for his heart and mind to bear, and he struggled to hold back a sob. He bent close to her face, lips trembling.  
God no, not her…Not Tifa…Please come back to me….  
Slowly, in an unconscious passionate move, he moved his lips to meet her white, frozen ones.

xxxx

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his little friend slowly walk upstairs. He heard him yell those things at Sephiroth and when he heard a slice and a grunt from him, he swelled with pride and relief. Cloud had done it. The little grunt who had looked up to him had defeated one of the strongest beings on the Planet. He felt like raising his fist in the air, but right now he couldn’t move.

When Cloud zipped down the stairs, he had wanted him to go to Tifa, expected even. He hoped by that attack on Sephiroth, she could see that some Shinra members were different.  
_Just hang in there Tifa. Cloud’ll save you. You’ll see we’re not all that bad.  
_ What he didn’t expect was Cloud’s reaction.  
_“Tifa’s safe, don’t worry.”  
“If only I was on SOLDIER….”  
“By the way, do you know Tifa?”  
“Sort of.” The reply was quick, shy and embarrassed..  
“Do you want to talk?” He gently prodded.  
He just looked off and gave a very uncommunitive shrug that was a terrible attempt to act like he didn’t care; he was clearly uncomfortable.  
“I’m sensing some issues here. Don’t you think you should do something?” He tried to push a bit harder. He wondered why Cloud didn’t have a girlfriend; it would have been nice to see him with one.   
Instead, he looked over and clammed up. End of conversation.  
_ So it really surprised him to see him, who avoided any topics about Tifa and just her general direction while in the village, melt into tender, caring emotions for her.   
Careful not to disturb or embarrass him, Zack managed to turn over a bit to get a better look to see if this was really true.  
Sure enough, he murmured her name and gently stroked her face, his face shadowed with grief and regret.   
_Well, maybe they are just great friends?_  
As he leaned to kiss her. Right.  
Zack managed to smile, however small and painful it was. _Go on Cloud, you deserve it…_  
 

xxxx  
He was interrupted by broken, clunking footfalls above him. When he looked up he saw Him walk out with that strange thing’s head. Sephiroth had caught sight of him and cried out in his freakishly smooth voice, “By someone like you…!”  
“Cloud!”  
He looked over at Zack on the steps, clutching his side. “Finish-him-off!”  
He gave a nod and carefully placed Tifa down and ran over to pick up Zack’s sword once more. He looked up at the man who was once his hero, who has motivated him to join Shinra in the first place, and brutally murdered Tifa; he was disgusted to be in any dealings within miles of him.  
Now he was a man he hated.  
“SEPHIROOOOOTH!!!!!” He screamed, and leapt in the air and slashed down on the maddened SOLDIER.  
Sephiroth didn’t have the highest SOLDIER title possible by accident. He held his own as if he hadn’t ben injured at all. With a small smirk he used his single left hand and launched Cloud on the other side of the room.  
Cloud crashed on the ground so fast he hardly knew what happened. His – Zack’s sword was gone; where did it go?!? He groaned and started to turn around to find it-  
“YAAAARRUGH!!!”  
Sephiroth’s sword was pierced right through his body, and a searing pain ran all around it in a rapid pace.  
Sephiroth growled, “Don’t…test me!” In that eerily smooth voice as he raised Cloud up by the sword.  
_How dare you?!?!?!?!?!?_ Cloud looked up in a flash of wrath.   
Everyone is dead because of you!!!  
Using his feelings for everything and everyone, he grasped the sword protruding from his body and lifted the bastard up himself.  
He gasped in his otherworldy voice: “It.. _Can’t_ be!”  
_Hell yes it is!!!_ Cloud gripped the sword tighter and threw him across the room, smashing him against a wall, then watched as he tumbled down into the pit of liquid below.  
Staggering and gasping into the mako room, he clutched his wound as blood gushed through his fingers. His eyesight blurred and cleared, blurred and cleared. He tried to go towards Tifa once more, but he tripped and slide down the stairs, bumping against them along the way. _I’m sorry…Tifa…Did I….Do well?......_  
“Good job…Cloud….” He heard Zack say right below him.  
The darkness engulfed him.

  
_I am reaaaly impressed with Tifa’s side of the story. I read it over and over, trying to perfect it by rewriting sentences and all that shizz. It’s a really short part and so I was nervous that I wouldn’t get all her views in her part of the incident, but I did and I’m so happy! The part I like the most is the last two sentences. It seems so scary, personally. We’re thinking those are the last things she ever experienced and she would die after that. We are also cheering her on by saying “Hold on! Cloud’ll come in just a little longer!” But she doesn’t know_ _☹ yet : D Anyway a Cloti story is next!_  
  
  
  
  


 

  



End file.
